Two more 19th century cabinet cards from Reading, Pennsylvania

On the heels of Papergreat's May 8 post — "How a gentleman should properly pose himself in a fake setting" — here are two more 19th century cabinet cards (probably circa 1890) from separate photographers in Reading, Pennsylvania.

This first one is from the New York Gallery, which was featured the other day. It shows a man and a woman (presumably they are husband and wife) and there are no identifications anywhere on the photograph.



This second cabinet card is from Strunk, Artistic Photographer, who was located at 730 Penn Street in Reading.¹ In this one, we again find the man in a chair and the woman standing next to him. And, again, there are no identifications scrawled anywhere on the front or back.



The backs of the cards are also quite ornate. You can click on the image below to see greater detail.



Footnote
1. This photographer's full name was John D. Strunk, and you can browse numerous other (fabulous) cabinet cards that he produced on The Cabinet Card Gallery.

Two Pennsylvania postcards: Shohola and Mauch Chunk

Related post: 10 great Pennsylvania postcards

I have two vintage Pennsylvania postcards for you this morning.

First up is this postcard of a man and his dog that pictures Shohola. The note on the front of the card states: "Dear Etta - Here for the day & it is raining like mad. Dot."

The card was mailed in 1906. There are three postmarks, for some reason. The stamp has a faded 1906 postmark from Shohola. And there are two Brooklyn, New York, postmarks — one from 3:30 p.m. on May 28, 1906, and one from 5 p.m. on May 28, 1906.

The card is addressed to Miss Etta Flower of 790 Classon Avenue in Brooklyn.

Shohola Township is a small municipality within Pike County along the border in northeastern Pennsylvania. It was a historically significant location for sawmills, dams and bridges.

Unfortunately, the township has also been the site of at least a dozen major railroad accidents. The worst was The Great Shohola Train Wreck in July 1864, which resulted in at least 60 deaths. The dead, according to Wikipedia, were buried in unmarked graves next to the track, where they remained until 1911, when they were moved to the Woodlawn National Cemetery in Elmira, New York.

Recreationally, Shohola Township had the Shohola Glen Amusement Park from 1886 until 1907. Today, it is home of Lake Owego Camp for Boys and Camp Shohola for Boys.

For more about Shohola Township, check out the Shohola Area Historical Information Web Page.

* * *


This postcard features Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, "from the mountain road."

The name Stanley is written on the front. The back of the card was postmarked twice — at 8:30 a.m. on September 4, 1906, and at 7 a.m. on September 5, 1906, in Millbury, Massachusetts. It is addressed to Miss Lotta Ferguson of Millbury.

Mauch Chunk is now, of course, call Jim Thorpe and is the home of that famous athlete's remains. But maybe not for long. A federal judge recently ruled that Thorpe’s two surviving sons had the right under American Indian ancestral law to move his remains back to Oklahoma, where Thorpe was raised. What that would mean for the town's name remains unclear.

For more on Mauch Chunk/Jim Thorpe, see this homeschooling/travel guide on Our School at Home.

Footnote
1. Shohola is the Lenape word for "Place of Peace."

Old notebook documenting trips to the general store

This is the front cover of a skinny, pocket-sized notebook that belonged to someone named ABABB long ago. I'm guessing that's actually A. Babb, but an educated guess is all that is.

Every page of the book is filled with lists of groceries and sundries and their prices, written out in pencil.

There are no years mentioned, so we're left to guess at when this is from. Some of the most repeated items are crackers, eggs, lard, apples, cookies, thread and milk.

Here are some of the listed items and their prices:

• 1 peck apples, .20
• Braid, .05
• Thread, .05
• Tobacco, .10
• Matches, .04
• Rhubarb, .15
• Eggs, .10
• Lard, .28
• Pork, .36
• Beans, .09
• Mustard, .10
• Currants, .10
• Crackers, 10
• Peaches, .13
• Oil, .14
• Cocoa, .25
• Flannel, .26
• Candy, .05
• 16¾ # Ham, 2.36
• Rice, .16
• Raisins, .10
• Beef, .56
• Wood, .40
• Stamps, .04
• Salts, .05
• Hoof Nails, .03
• Shirts, .20
• Drawers, .20
• Stockings, .10
• Overalls, .50
• Shoes, .55
• Suspenders, .25
• Clams, .18
• Sardines, .25

Shown below are two side-by-side pages from the notebook. The numbers in the far-left column on each page refer to the day of the month.



And so the notebook was used precisely as it was intended. The cover itself states: "Dry Goods and Groceries. Fancy Goods. Notions. Hardware, Crockery, Hats & Caps. Boots & Shoes, Clothing, Etc."

Actually, it wasn't used for all of those things. It wasn't used for ... notions.



I'm a big fan of using pocket notebooks for jotting down notions. I have Moleskine notebooks filled with all sorts of passing thoughts, lists, Big Ideas and oddities. Trust me when I say that those will make for some very interesting fodder for future historians and ephemeraologists.